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Whenever you use the Internet for research, you need to think critically about the information you find there. A healthy dose of evaluation is helpful whenever you use research from other sources, but on the Internet it's especially valuable. To illustrate this point, consider the differences between the following two sources of information:

*The examples above are based on a typical minimum number of people involved in each source. Many websites are produced in a manner similar to book publication, but most are not.

As you can see from this chart, a book you check out from the library to use in your research has been through infinitely more "filters" before you see it than has a typical website. Also, consider the amount of money involved in getting the information to you. The web site author in the chart above might not spend any money to put the information on the web. The book is a result of many hours of work and many dollars in purchasing, printing, marketing, transporting, and selling the book.

This does not mean that a book is always "true", and a website is always "false". While spending a lot of money on an idea doesn't make it right, it does increase the likelihood that many people have paid attention to it, and more are likely to have carefully considered its quality. It just means that you need to be careful about the informaton you find on the Internet, and that you need to take a few extra steps to find out about who created the website you're working with, and what their sources of information are.

Do this first: For the exercise that follows, you'll want to use an accompanying worksheet to record your responses. If you use the right-button on your mouse, you can save the worksheet as a Word document, then open it and type your answers in it.

Exercise #1: Take a minute and quickly look at the three websites below. (They'll open in new browser windows when you click on them). Discuss with your partner what your initial impressions of them are. If you were doing a report on Martin Luther King, Jr., would one provide better information than the other? Which one would you want to rely on? Don't spend too much time looking at the links attached to these pages; just focus on your first impressions.

*Don't close the browser windows when you're done discussing them, because you'll want to come back to them later.

Domain Type: One of the first things you should do when deciding whether to use a potential website for research is to notice what kind of website it is. You can tell a great deal about a site by its domain type.The chart below identifies some common domain types along with their typical description and identifying feature. There are many exceptions to these guidelines, but becoming familiar with general meaning of a URL domain type is one way to begin evaluating the information you find there.

Exercise #2: Return to the three websites you looked at before and see if you can figure out what types of sites they are. What are their domain types? What does that tell you about their possible content?

*If you've closed the browser windows earlier, the links are here for you again.Site A / Site B / Site C

Authorship: The next step to finding out about the value and validity of a site is to figure out who the author is. Does the author of the site know what they're talking about? What are his or her credentials? Why is the author particularly qualified to present information about the topic you're researching? How do you know they're telling the truth?

To answer these questions, you might need to do some hunting for the author's name, and then do even a little more searching to find out what makes them qualified to give information on a particular topic.

Exercise #3: Return to the three websites you looked at before and see if you can figure out who the authors of sites they are. Are specific names of authors given? Is the sponsoring organization the "author", or is there information about the author available from the address? (look for a ~ in the address line, to signify a personal page). If you need to use navigational buttons to Home, or Credits, or Info, or if you need to "back out" of the website to find the author's name, go ahead and do that now.

*If you've closed the browser windows earlier, the links are here for you again.Site A / Site B / Site C

That's why it's so important to use a variety of research materials from independent sources when you conduct research. If there's incorrect information in one resource, you're much more likely to realize that when you use a variety of other sources.

Exercise #4: Return to the three websites you looked at before and take a look at the actual information they present.

• For site A, use the Timeline link to get a timeline of Dr. King's life.
• For site B, use the information presented on the main page.
• For site C, use the information presented on the main page.

Are there any inconsistencies within the information there? Does one present a fact differently than another? Record your impressions on your evaluation sheet.

*If you've closed the browser windows earlier, the links are here for you again.Site A / Site B / Site C

Bias: Another area to evaluate when working with websites is whether or not the author portrays a certain point of view, or attempts to color the information presented in a certain way. Sometimes this is depicted by the choice of language used. Does the author use terms that typically are used to paint positive pictures, or create negative impressions, or that are more neutral? For example:

• Positive: John F. Kennedy was the greatest President of the United States.
• Negative: John F. Kennedy was the worst President of the United States.
• Neutral: .John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States.

Another thing to consider is the commercial influence that might be placed on the author. If the site is a commercial (.com) or advocacy (.org) site, does the host institution have any connection to the topic being discussed? If so, the information presented might be colored by the association with the hosting institution. Are there advertisements on the page? Are they related to the content? Might the need for advertising play a role in what information is presented, and how it is presented?

Exercise #5: Return to the three websites you looked at before and see if you can find any language or associations that might influence the content of the pages. Is the sponsoring organization a .com or .org that might have an impact on how the author presents their information? Are there advertisements mixed in with the content, or so closely associated with the content that they might influence the author's words?

*If you've closed the browser windows earlier, the links are here for you again.Site A / Site B / Site C

Currency: Finally, it's time to see how current the information is. When dealing with historical topics, you might think that being current isn't that important. After all, things that happened 100 years ago happened 100 years ago; there's not much to change.

However, when dealing with more current topics, it is important to make sure you have the most current information. And even with historical topics, it's nice to know when information was last updated, because even though historical "facts" might not change, people's interpretations of them does change.

Exercise #6: Return to the three websites you looked at before and see if you can find the dates they were first created, and the last date they were updated.

*If you've closed the browser windows earlier, the links are here for you again.Site A / Site B / Site C

Overall quality: Finally, it's time to take a look at the actual scope of information presented on the site you've selected. Since there are numerous web pages available for you to use, you should select only the best to occupy your limited time and attention. Spend a few minutes deciding how comprehensive the site is. Does it give new information, or simply repeat what you already know? Does it provide links to other (better?) sites? How useful is it going to be to you?

Exercise #7: Return to the three websites you looked at before and decide how useful their coverage is. Is there a great deal of depth to the information, or is it simply a little bit of information, much of which is covered in other resources? Does it provide links to other sites, that might be even better? .

*If you've closed the browser windows earlier, the links are here for you again.Site A / Site B / Site C

Exercise #8: Now it's time to put all the information together and decide if the site's information is something you want to rely on. Take a look at all the information you've gathered, and make some decisions about how useful, reliable, and valid the site is for your purposes. Give an overall evaluation of the three sites you’ve looked at. Which seem most useful? Which might you have to worry about in terms of accuracy and other factors?

Putting these concepts into practice

Once you've finished the worksheet and the questions above, it's time to try out these skills on a website that you've used in the past. Using an online evaluation form, evaluate one of the websites you and your group used for your last research project. Follow the steps you did with the Martin Luther King sites, using one from ancient Greece or Rome.